Dehydrated Potato Chandler Crawford 11-30-2014

Question to guide my project How does salt water and plain water effect the potato?

Background Dehydration is a loss of body fluids, that can cause severe health problems. The more your body sweats, the more water your body loses making you become dehydrated. The body sweating is what cools you down, and consists of water that you are losing. you have to put fluids back into your body to stay hydrated.

My hypothesis If i put my potato in salt water it will dehydrate more then when I put my potato in regular water. This is because the salt water is pulling water out of the potato causing it to dehydrate.

My variables Independent-The two types of water. Dependent-Changes in look of potato Constants-same type of potato, amount of water, amount of time

My procedures 1-get two bowls with water and label one salt water and the other plain 2-Fill each bowl with equal amounts of water 3-Stir two tablespoons of salt into the bowl marked salt water only 4-Use a knife and cut the potato in equal halves 5-Place one half of the potato into each bowl 6-Let the potatoes sit in the bowl undisturbed for about an 45 minutes

DATA potato soaking 15 minutes 30 minutes 45 minutes 1 hour in plain water no change in salt water slight shrivel, color darkening shrivel and black looking

CONCLUSION What do you think will happen to the potatoes, one soaking in plain water, and the other soaking in salt water? I took a potato and cut it in equal halves. I placed one half of the potato in plain water, and the other half in salt water. I let them soak for an 45 minutes in a half inch of water, and then sit out for 15 minutes and watched the salt water potato start turning black, and shrinking up. The salt water was the dehydrator, drawing all the water out of the potato, this is why the potato shriveled up. Based on the data, and my experiment the salt water made the potato dehydrate, and the plain water made the potato stay the same. The data supported my hypothesis because we knew the salt water would make the potato dehydrate because the salt would pull out the water from the potato. The plain water we knew would not change the potato, because water helps it stay hydrated. With my project I learned that healthy water is the key to hydration, and how quickly you can dehydrate if you do not contain enough water in your body. Some problems with my project were that I did not get my potato cut into equal halves the first try, and I used too much water. By fixing these two problems, I was able to complete my project.